Monday, February 8, 2010

Home-Lovin' Bread

I made bread yesterday - real yeast and flour, rising bread. My sister makes bread all the time, but this is a second time in my life kind of event for me (zucchini and banana bread count as bread, but I'm talking about yeast-kneading-rising kind of bread.). At work on Friday, I had this fleeting thought: "Mmm, I would love to make some sweet potato bread. I wonder if I can find a recipe for sweet potato bread." And, of course, through the wonders of google, I found about a million recipes. I chose one at random: Sweet Potato Prune Bread. The uniqueness of that combination was right up my alley, though I decided against the prunes because I didn't have any at home. I went with apricots (because I 1. have a HUGE bag of them, 2. LOVE dried apricots, and 3. couldn't resist the orange theme of the apricots with the sweet potatoes - hey, it IS my favorite color!) This bread couldn't have turned out better if it had been made by someone who knew what she was doing! It is DELICIOUS!! If you decide to try the recipe as written, I'm sure it will be amazing, too, but I did make the following 3 substitutions: used soy milk instead of skim, apricots instead of prunes, and maple syrup instead of honey. My version is vegan, which excites me because my very favorite vegan friend, Cindy, LOVES sweet potatoes and this will definitely be something I make for her next visit! For now, I'm trying to save some for Michele (who will be home for Valentine's Day!!), but it's so good, I'm having a hard time staying away from it!!

just so you know, i put sweet potatoes in my bread all the time. my favorite combination is sweet potato & carrots cuz it makes the bread really sweet and yummy. slightly orange, but the kids don't mind :)

did you use your bread machine? i love the braided loaf! it reminds me of the Christmas bread mum usta make :)